GL News

July 29, 2010

Area districts vie for fed funds

Dallas, Crestwood, Bear Creek Charter, Pittston Area and Hazleton Area on Pa.’s list.

By Mark Guydish mguydish@timesleader.com
Education Reporter
Mark Guydish on Facebook   |   @TLMarkGuydish on Twitter

Pennsylvania – and by extension, six area school districts and a charter school – again made the list of finalists seeking part of $4 billion in federal money being handed out through the “Race To The Top” competitive grant program.

Seventeen other states and the District of Columbia also were named finalists in the second round of the U.S. Department of Education program.

Pennsylvania was among 16 finalists in the first round but didn’t make the final cut in March. The state has sought $400 million and promised to divvy about half of that among districts that managed to get a “memorandum of understanding” signed by the union, board president and superintendent agreeing to cooperate in the program.

Only 120 of the state’s 500 districts submitted properly signed memoranda.

In Luzerne County, Crestwood, Dallas, Hazleton Area, Pittston Area and Bear Creek Charter School are eligible for money. Scranton City and Abington Heights School Districts are also on the list.

The program promises to use about $4 billion in stimulus money for districts for substantial reforms designed to boost student academic achievement.

Some local teachers unions have been wary because language in the grant program suggests one of those reforms would be tying teacher pay to student performance, but doesn’t spell out how that might be done.

All told, 36 states and the District of Columbia applied for the grants. The applications were judged on a 500-point grading scale looking at progress on reform plans such as turning around low-performing schools and bolstering data systems.

There is no specific number of states set to win the money, though pundits expect it to be 10 to 15 grants totaling $3.4 billion this round. All the states that were finalists last time but did not win – like Pennsylvania – were finalists this time, with five new ones: New Jersey, Maryland, Hawaii, California and Arizona.

The Department of Education expects to announce the second-round winners in September.

Arizona’s inclusion in the second-round finalists has surprised some. In the first round, it was next to last among 40 applicants.

The amount each district gets depends on how much the state gets if it wins. Locally, the amounts range from about $130,000 to more than $1 million.

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